Major Scales 101 Options

[Andrew Cockburn]

Major Scales 101

Introduction

In this lesson we are going to discuss what is probably the most important scale in Western music. The reason that it is so important, apart from the fact that it gets used in a huge proportion of modern songs, is that it is also the foundation of our musical system. We use it as a basis for describing intervals, building chords and specifying key signatures. In most cases, the Major scale is assumed as the norm from which other scales deviate. The only other scale that approaches the prominence of the Major scale is the Minor scale, which is itself derived from the Major scale - which we will look at in a later lesson.

With that in mind, lets have a look at it!

The Major Scale

The Major scale is a 7 note scale, built using the formula: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1

You should be familiar with scale formulae from the previous lessons. Lets have a look at how we would build a scale of G major. Obviously our root note is G, and building up from the formula we get the following notes:

G + 2 semitones = A
A + 2 semitones = B
B + 1 semitone = C
C + 2 semitones = D
D + 2 semitones = E
E + 2 semitones = F#
F# + 1 semitones = G

So there you have it - a scale of G major has the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F# G, and as usual you can apply this formula with any other root note to get the exact scale that you want.

On the Fretboard

How do we play this on the guitar? Well, sticking with our G Major scale, we can construct 7 different boxes - why 7? Well, if we start with our root note of G on the E string, we can play a scale by moving up that single string, and each place we land can be the basis of a new box. However, for Major scales, a couple of the boxes will only be separated by 1 semitone, so be convention we miss these out, leaving 5 boxes, separated by either 2 or 3 semitones.

Here they are:







And that in a nutshell is the Major scale!

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This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Oct 11 2007, 05:41 AM

[wibbers]

Hey there, the past week or so I've started learning some threory for the first time, but Im struggling with a few issues, maybe you could help?

Above you have listed all the boxes for g major scale, if I wanted to play A major instead would I stick to the same shapes and just use A as the root notes instead or is the A major (or d,c,e etc..) entirely different?

Can i move from up and down the neck without changin key aslong as i stay in these boxes?

Also how do I know which scale to play over which chord sequence?

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[The Professor]

Hey,
That's correct. As long as you know where the root is, you can move these shapes around to apply them to all 12 keys. So if the root is an A in any of those shapes, then it is outlining an A major scale.

To apply these scales to a chord sequence, you just need to figure out the key of the song and then you can use the major scale that fits that key.

If there are multiple keys it gets a bit trickier, but for a song that has the chords G C D, which is in the key of G major, you could use the G major scale to solo over these chords when it's time to play a lead part.

Hey there, the past week or so I've started learning some threory for the first time, but Im struggling with a few issues, maybe you could help?

Above you have listed all the boxes for g major scale, if I wanted to play A major instead would I stick to the same shapes and just use A as the root notes instead or is the A major (or d,c,e etc..) entirely different?

Can i move from up and down the neck without changin key aslong as i stay in these boxes?

Also how do I know which scale to play over which chord sequence?

Try sticking to a key for now to really get the shapes worked out under your fingerings and the sounds of the scales in your ears.

So, play the five shapes in G major until you can do it at a decent tempo, with no starts and stops, from memory.

Then, take it through another key such as A, D, C or E.

Eventually you want to cover all 12 keys, but starting with one and really nailing it is a great place to begin.

thanks for the boxes...
i have started to learn the 5 box position with g major...

How should we really go about doing this ?? Should we learn one Major scales all positions and then minor related to it and pentatonic related to it ??

Or do all major scales first ??

What way to avoid confusion !!!

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